Space forum: Make Obama keep word

September 29, 2009|By Robert Block, Sentinel Space Editor

COCOA -- With the space-shuttle program about to end and no clear sign when NASA's next rocket will take its place, Space Coast political and aerospace officials agreed Monday that Florida must press President Barack Obama to keep his campaign promise to fund an "ambitious" space program and protect workers at Kennedy Space Center.

"One of the things we have made a priority in Washington is to see that the promise is kept," U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, told about 200 people packed into the Florida Solar Energy Center auditorium in Cocoa.

The meeting, the third annual Florida Space and Technology Forum, was organized by Brevard County, drawing researchers, space workers, NASA contractors and political leaders of every stripe from across Florida.

County officials are braced for as many as 28,000 direct and indirect job losses when the shuttle program ends either late next year or early in 2011. A presidential panel that recently looked at NASA said the agency's proposed successor, Ares I, won't fly before 2017 and that NASA can't afford a "viable" manned-space program without $3 billion more a year.

On Monday, local organizers also announced a letter-writing campaign to remind Obama of his campaign pledge a year ago. Its Web site, SaveSpace.us, is complete with letter templates, a copy of Obama's August 2008 speech in Titusville, a map of the counties affected by the space program and a list of participating organizations.

The drive is the brainchild of new Brevard County Commissioner Robin Fisher, a Democrat from Titusville, who told the crowd that Space Coast residents need to make their voices heard.

"Unless you've got a lot of people screaming, it doesn't work," he said.

The idea of holding Obama accountable was raised by speaker after speaker.

"We have got to push the president to commit to fulfill the promises that he made when he was campaigning down here," said Barney Bishop, head of the Associated Industries of Florida.

However, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach, conceded that the president is unlikely to see NASA as a "jobs program."

Last year, Obama told 1,400 people at Brevard Community College that, as president, he would help close the gap between the retirement of the shuttle and the launch of its successor and would "make sure that all those who work in the space industry in Florida do not lose their jobs when the shuttle is retired." Obama did add one shuttle flight soon after being elected.

Almost every speaker endorsed the presidential panel's recommendation to give $3 billion more a year, but some also cautioned about putting all the blame for NASA's woes on Obama.

"Where we lost ground was when the Vision [for Space Exploration] was established [by President Bush] in '04 and the funding never followed," said Kosmas. "If we had better leadership from that time forward, we would not be in the same situation we are in now."

Monday's forum was marked by a tangible sense of unease. With six shuttle flights left before the orbiters are mothballed and some 7,000 workers lose their jobs, there were concerns that time is running out.

"We're on the last play of the game," said Mark Wilson, the president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.